Bull Army
05-08-2005, 23:44
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,27-1722875,00.html (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,27-1722875,00.html)
SOUTHAMPTON play their first league match outside the top flight since 1977 today when Wolverhampton Wanderers visit St Mary’s Stadium and Harry Redknapp, the home team’s manager, is looking forward to the challenge of the next nine months. If he were not, he said yesterday, he would have been playing golf rather than preparing his players to face another of the favourites for promotion.
Many are surprised that he is not working on reducing his handicap, having read stories that Redknapp would walk or be pushed if Southampton went down last season. Regulars around the club, however, always believed that he would not want to bow out with relegation the final entry on his footballing CV and Rupert Lowe, the chairman, opted for continuity rather than an eighth manager in as many years.
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<TD align=right></TD></TR></T></T></TABLE>It is a typical oddity that the opening Coca-Cola Championship match brings together two managers, in Redknapp and Glenn Hoddle, who could have been in the other dugout today, with Hoddle, a former Southampton manager, Lowe’s choice before the appointment of Redknapp. “Glenn could have come here and I could have gone there,” Redknapp said. “I got offered the job at Wolves, but I wasn’t going to move home. I think they are going to be one of eight or nine strong teams in a tough-looking league, tougher than when I was with Portsmouth.
“Plenty of teams will think they have a chance. Leeds have a strong squad and I fancy Sheffield United. Palace have kept (Andrew) Johnson and have added, Norwich have kept (Dean) Ashton and are as strong as they were last year. But going up shouldn’t be as hard as trying to get out of last year’s bottom four.”
Redknapp’s rebuilding plans have yet to be completed, with the departure of Peter Crouch to Liverpool leaving him with money in the bank but a space to be filled. The arrivals of Tomasz Hajto, the Poland defender, and Dennis Wise, the former England midfield player, add experience and will probably mean a change of formation to 5-3-2, a system that served Redknapp well at Portsmouth, where he won promotion from this division at the first attempt.
So does Redknapp believe that this team can rebound at the first attempt? “Of course,” he said. “I don’t think anyone did when I went to Pompey. We were 33-1 outsiders, but we surprised everybody. This year we’re one of the favourites, so it’s different.”Edited by: Bull Army
SOUTHAMPTON play their first league match outside the top flight since 1977 today when Wolverhampton Wanderers visit St Mary’s Stadium and Harry Redknapp, the home team’s manager, is looking forward to the challenge of the next nine months. If he were not, he said yesterday, he would have been playing golf rather than preparing his players to face another of the favourites for promotion.
Many are surprised that he is not working on reducing his handicap, having read stories that Redknapp would walk or be pushed if Southampton went down last season. Regulars around the club, however, always believed that he would not want to bow out with relegation the final entry on his footballing CV and Rupert Lowe, the chairman, opted for continuity rather than an eighth manager in as many years.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0 VALIGN="TOP"><T>
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<TD id=mpuer name="mpuer"></TD></TR>
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<TD align=right></TD></TR></T></T></TABLE>It is a typical oddity that the opening Coca-Cola Championship match brings together two managers, in Redknapp and Glenn Hoddle, who could have been in the other dugout today, with Hoddle, a former Southampton manager, Lowe’s choice before the appointment of Redknapp. “Glenn could have come here and I could have gone there,” Redknapp said. “I got offered the job at Wolves, but I wasn’t going to move home. I think they are going to be one of eight or nine strong teams in a tough-looking league, tougher than when I was with Portsmouth.
“Plenty of teams will think they have a chance. Leeds have a strong squad and I fancy Sheffield United. Palace have kept (Andrew) Johnson and have added, Norwich have kept (Dean) Ashton and are as strong as they were last year. But going up shouldn’t be as hard as trying to get out of last year’s bottom four.”
Redknapp’s rebuilding plans have yet to be completed, with the departure of Peter Crouch to Liverpool leaving him with money in the bank but a space to be filled. The arrivals of Tomasz Hajto, the Poland defender, and Dennis Wise, the former England midfield player, add experience and will probably mean a change of formation to 5-3-2, a system that served Redknapp well at Portsmouth, where he won promotion from this division at the first attempt.
So does Redknapp believe that this team can rebound at the first attempt? “Of course,” he said. “I don’t think anyone did when I went to Pompey. We were 33-1 outsiders, but we surprised everybody. This year we’re one of the favourites, so it’s different.”Edited by: Bull Army
